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Soap makes water wetter. Kind of. It reduces the surface tension, allowing it to spread out and penetrate better. Making it clean better. So could we produce a surface tension-free water?

What about another liquid? Is there a "perfect" cleaner, something that spreads and penetrates like nothing else?

Very interested in the answer.

18 comments
    1. You seem to be assuming that a perfectly tensionless water would make for a superior cleaner, but there’s no reason to assume that would be true. Lowering surface tension is not the sole reason that soap is a good cleaner; it’s not even the biggest reason.
    2. I have no idea if water can be made perfectly tensionless, but that’s what dishwasher rinse-aids are for: to make the water molecules stick to things (including each other) less, so they evaporate more quickly & easily. If You Want Drier Dishes, Use Dishwasher Rinse Aid

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    Edit to add: I suppose that definitionally no liquid is without surface tension.

    A liquid is made up of tiny vibrating particles of matter, such as atoms, held together by intermolecular bonds. Like a gas, a liquid is able to flow and take the shape of a container. Unlike a gas, a liquid maintains a fairly constant density and does not disperse to fill every space of a container.

  • The soap makes water wetter things was from a Bill Nye episode. I mean he really simplified it for a kids science show. There's a bit more going on with soap than simply the surface tension being reduced. You've got emulsifier, surfactants, etc.

    I don't think reducing surface tension alone will make a better cleaner.

  • soap allows to dissolve fats in small droplets of soap (micelles). Surface tension arises from affinity to the surface, like oil still doesn't like teflon pans, despite being hydrophobic. So no, you can't find one size fits all liquid. (Aside from supercritical fluids, but they require pressures - and sometimes are used in dry cleaning! so this might be your answer)

  • oh and you're talking about dry cleaning chemicals. dry cleaning isn't actually clean, it's just tumbled in chemicals that aren't water

18 comments